Internal-combustion engine



June 16,1925.` 1,542,476

. C. E. SARGENT INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Filed Nov. l5.,l 192.2

Patented June 16, 1925.

PATENT OFFICE.

E. SARGENT, F CLINTON, IOWA.

INTERNAL-COMBUSTION' ENGINE.

Application led November 15, 1922. Serial No. 601,080.

To all whom it may camcom.' i

Be it known that I, CHARLES'E. SARGENT, a citizen-of the United States, residing at Clinton, in the county of Clinton and State of Iowa, l

v Improvement in Internal-Co1nbust1on-Engines, of which-the following is a specification.

This invention relates to internal combus- 19 tion engines and is fully described in the following specification and shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a transverse vertical section, through an internal combustion engine embodying my 115 invention, Fig. 2 is a artial horizontal section on the line 2 of ig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a partial horizontal section on the line 3 of Fig. 1.

The embodiment illustrated comprises an internal combustion engine having a cylinder 10, a piston 11 slidable therein, `a crank case 12, and a crank shaft 13 journaled in the crank case, and operatively connected to the piston 11 by means of a connecting rod 14, in a well known manner.

The crank shaft 13 has a gear 15 keyed thereon, which meshes with an idler gear 16 and this in turn with a cam shaft 17, which is keyed on the cam shaft 18, the

latter being suitably journaled inthe crank case.

The exhaust valve 19 is normally held upon its seat by means of a spring 20, thereby closing the exhaust passage 21. This valve is operated by means of a rocker arm 22'and a tappet 23 from a cam on the cam shaft 18., in a well known manner.

The inlet valve 24 closes the inlet passage 25 and is held upon its seat by means of the spring 26. This valveis also operated by a suitable cam on the cam shaft 18.

A rotary distributing valve 27 surrounds the stem of the valve 24 and has an opening 28 on the side thereof, which is adapted to register with the air passage 29 and the mixture passage 30. The air passage 29 leads to the air and may have a valve 31 therein, if desired. The mixture passage 30 connects through the pipe 32l with any well known tygof carburetor (not shown). y

e distributing valve. 27 has a gear 33 formed in its base,'which meshes with 'a gear 34, which is keyed to the distributing have invented a new and useful shaft 35. A spiral gear 36 is slilably mounted upon the shaft 35, which is caused to rotate by a key (not shown), which slides in a keyway 37 in the shaft 35.`

The spiral gear 36 meshes with a spiral gear 38, the'latter shaft 18. An annular groove 39 is formed in the upper end of the spiral gear 36, which is adapted to receive pins 40 carried by the bifurcated jaws 41 of a lever 42, which is fulcrumed at 43.

It will be apparent from the foregoing that'as the crank shaft 13 revolves'it will drive the cam shaft 18 through the idler 16, and that the cam shaft in turn will drive the valve 27 in a counter-clockwise direction, as viewed in Fig. 2, when the crank' lshaft 13 is driven in a clockwise direction, as shown in Fig. l. It will thus be noted that the distributing valve 27 will first un- 'cover the air passage 29. At the Sametime, the valve 24 is raised, thus admitting a partial charge of air to the cylinder. As the distributing valve 27 continues to rotate in a counter-clockwise direction, the opening 28 therein passes in front of the abutment 29 cutting off the flow of air through the distributing valve and opening communication between the mixture passage 30 and they engine cylinder. During the latter part of the suctlon stroke therefor, only a combustible mixture is fed into the cylinder. Much of this remains in the upper part of the engine cylinder and in the pocket 24a surrounding the inlet valve 24. As the last gases bustible and adjacent to the spark plug 44 ignition will always take place irrespective of the quantity of mixture induced, and as the compression of air, mixture or both is constant, a very high thermal eiciency rwill be maintained throughout all ranges of load.

Control of the engine is maintained by varying the proportions of air and combustible mixture fed to the en ine cylinder. This is obtained by shifting t e spiral gear 36 axially along the. shaft 35 by means o the control lever 42. As this spiral gear is raised, the distributing valve 27 1s retarded,

thereby increasing the length of time durin which the air passage 29 is uncovered ancgl correspondingly decreasing the time durin' which the mixture passage 30 is uncovere being keyed on the cam entering the cylinder are comfmt Consequently, a' smaller combustible charge and more air is fed to the cylinder. 'With the parts as shown, the air passage 29 is substantially closed at the beginning of the suction stroke and consequently-nearly all of the charge is drawn from the carburetor.

`What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

In an internal combustion engine, a combustion chamber, an inlet passage and an outlet passage leading thereto, inlet and outlet valves controlling said passages, an air passage and a mixture passage leading to said inlet passage, a distributing valve controlling the air and mixture passages, a cam shaft, a pair of spiral gears for driving said rotary valve from said cam shaft, and means for moving one of said gears axially to shift the timing of said rotary valve with respect to the timing of the inlet valve.

CHARLES E. SARGEN T. 

